Usa esas ROBERT KIRKMAN Creator, Writer CHARLIE ADLARD Fenciler, Cover STEFANO GAUDIANO Inker CLIFF RATHBURN RUS WOOTON “'y Tones mas DAVE STEWART SEAN MACKIEWICZ ove" Colors Editor Previously: While Eugene believes Dwight’s playing beth sides, other Saviors seem open to rebelling against their loader. Prepping for their next attack, Negan instructs, his troops to coat their weapons with zombie guts for maximum damag Just as the Kingdom consolidates all their forces at Hilltop. For Skybound ober ldkenan sence Entertainment Shatin see terse, a bxle0,tuntngton ‘Sean Mackiewicz Seicenenn Erie Stephenson Jessica Amériz, For image Comics Sue! comin sre, fon Richard Tyler Shainine aonte kinemat eT ; Siclamen. Kat Salazar Jonathon Cho Todd McFarlane Jeremy Sulivan roy oi More Sager! Erute.ss emo, : cee Branwyn Jenna Savage Jim Valentino: ‘one ‘Addison ouke wwwv.imagecomics.com THE WALKING DEAD #123, March 2014. Published by Image Comics, Ine. Office of publication: 2001 Center St., Gth Floor, Berkeley, CA 94704, Copyright © 2014 Robert Kirkman, LLC. All rights reserved. THE WALKING DEAD™ (including sil prominent cheracters featured herein), its logo and ‘ll character likenesses are trademarks of Robert Kirkinan, LLC, unioss otherwise noted, Image Comice® and its logos are registered trademarks and copyrights of Image Comics, Ine. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in ary form or by any means (except for short excerpts for review purposes) without the express written permission of Image Comics, Inc. All names, characters, oventa and localea in this publication are entirely fictional ‘Any resemblance to actual persone (living and/or dead), events or places, without satiric intent, ie coincidental. DIGITAL EDITION.{ voor TERIEND | (322 nae \ antonio? NCI BA ae FT NEVER SAW if // MA/SELE Like THrs, FACE ALL CUT UP. WZ SU NOT THAT rr maces \ THOSE THINGS nOF COURSE T REMEMBER YOU, YOUVE ONLY BEEN HERE A BEW MONTHS.\ HAVE, OUR Onin PLACE 7 I DONT KNOW. { mayee TM CRAZY. SUT Z LOOK OUT Ss THE WORLDWELL. fie ouve to- eTWE'RE COMNG IN, RICK! Ey 3 YOUR LAST CHANCE Sf BARE ASS OKAY! ANYONE IN EARSHOT--LISTEN ou N WARNED.a KEEP YOUR, pstance! ) ot'S ARE GONNA WERE FACE ick: Wrst ome ¥ YOUf THE cars! ( Sar THem } Down!GAME FUCKING OVER.Sometimes you have to let a page speak for itself, and T think this Issue clears up, at the very least, the issue of Dwight’s loyalty... and to say where we go from here will be quite monumental. Yeah... let's just leave it at that LETTERS! Dear Kirkman, You bastard! How could you kill off my favorite character; Heath's Leg? That leg was always running around gathering supplies to keep people alive but what now? Blown away! And fis booty doctor chick got bitten! What is left for peor Heath? One good leg? Come on! When will this war end? Tt has gone too far! almost lost is too much with Rick's hand and then Carl's eye but this Anyway, love the comic! Looking forward to another decade, atleast! Ben P Grand Rapids Eventually all the dismembered parts will assemble and form a brand new character. Cool, right? That's been done in 2 comic before. Research your Jokes, Mackiewicz, You guys missed out big with those grenades and Lucille how bad ass would that have been to bat one In and have It hit ear Zack Lucille batting a grenade? Pretty cool (potentially dumb as well), At Carl? Not cool, Not cool at all Kirkman, you're a fucking dick tease. A grenade goes off behind Carl and 1 think to myself, "Man, Kirkman Is really Putting it to this kid. Look at how clase’that grenade was to him. Look at the beautiful ewan dive he’s taking fram the blast, He's got to be dead this time, right?” Nope, nope, and fucking NO! "Y'm okay, dad. I'm okay.,"? Are you fucking Serious?! “It just knocked me down.” What the fuck?! I'd expect the kids back to be shredded by shrapnel, not to mention Internal injuries from the blast wave itself. Man, that kid has mare lives than a fucking eat... Wait a minute, you killed Shiva. Where was her extra lives, huh? Any rate, keep up the great work. I can’t wait to see haw All Out War turns out, and I'm looking forward to how you're: going to put Carl through the wringer next. He's one tough Hee tuck, Craig Johnson Webster City, 1A wimp. Yeah, Carl could have been seriously injured being that close to that grenade blast. He was lucky that time. He's been very unlucky in the past. Cut the kid some slack. UR RCEN Dees aurea Dear Kirkman & crew, What was the significance of Rick leaving the phone he used to communicate with dead Lori with behind? Roberto Laboy Alexandria, Virginia The significance is that he left the phone he used to communicate with dead Lori behind. He hasn't used it ia a while, he put it away... but he never got rid of it. By leaving it behind, he’s y'know... leaving that part of his life behind, But as revealed this issue... he plans on eventually going back to Alexandria. So maybe it was part of his plan all along. We'll see. Dear Mr. Kirkman, Tove Jesus! And I love Jesus. T know he only got a few panels in issue #121, but I've been meaning ta write to you about how much affection [have for the character for awhile, I know (It’s been sald, right?) that Walking Dead Jesus isn’t supposed to have any symbolic connection to Bible Jesus, but I can’t help but equate them in ry mind. Walking Dead Jesus Is a nice guy--he's open, he's honest, he’s compassionate. But he also gets the Jab done, and very effectively at that, I think the Jesus from the Bible was like that in some ways--always concerned about people, about doing the right thing, but very down to earth and practical. You gotta have your head in the clouds and your feet firmiy planted on the ground, you know? Welking Dead Jesus seems to be like that. And by "head in the clouds” in his case, I mean he’s an ideallst-and he's also a realist He's optimistic but he’s not fooling himself that things aren't dire, Just like Bible Jesus. Maybe I'm projecting onto Walking Dead Jesus because he has the same name as Bible Jesus, but even so, you don't have to stretch to make a few positive comparisons. All that’s to say that when I see Jesus in Walking Dead, even if i's for a few panels, he always gives me hope, Riek is weighed dawn by sa many things, but Jesus Is here and nov, tight by your side, ready to serve. And the thing is, even it he dies, it's okay because he made everything around him better by being there. Even if he dies horribly, T know he'l be okay, because he also knows that he’s done his best to make everything around him better just by being there. Not a bad thing for any of us to strive for, really. 1’m realizing now that I've made this distinction between Bible Jesus and Walking Dead Jesus that you could say that Bible Jesus is also Walking Dead Jesus. Because he was, resurrected, Get it7 Love, Jason M, Poole This isn’t a great letter by any means, but I enjoyed its message. Also, doesn’t everyone go to school with some kid who grows out his hair and everyone calls him Jesus? Skybound has a convention booth worker who used to look like Jesus except then he cut all his hair off and is more like Judas. Where'd that guy go? I liked that guy. Does he just help out in San Diego? Seems like It's been a while since Isaw booth Jesus. Also... I don’t remember him cutting his hair. Dama it... did I see him with ahaircut and not recognize him? That would be embarrassing. To my dearest Walking Dead Team, Issue 121 was definitely Not a letdown (even with y’all leaving ‘out the return of zombie Shiva...but one can't gat everything fone wants, now can they?)I Anywho, loved the story and especially the inks ~ Gaudiano...you rock. That splash page was uh-mazing, tool Fav moments included: 1. Carl calling Rick a wimp Agreed! 2, Michanne volunteering to get the job done And 3. The very second to last panel when Negan leaves Eugene to weigh his options (seriously.,.this would be a tough choice for Eugene, don’t you think)? To conclude...congratulations on making this book my favorite to read every (other) Wednesday (I'mma die when it goes back to monthly), Maybe we won't just so you keep living! Your most dedicated dead-head, Ryan N. Ray, Lexington, KY PS, Shiva LIVESII! No she doesn’t! Dear Rabert Kirkman, Tam a dedicated reader of THE WALKING DEAD and I am loving "All Qut War” but your hype about “the unthinkable” Is, such Hollywood B.S. ‘Unthinkable” would have been Denise not turning and surviving a zombie bite, or Rick being killed and Maggie takes over the story line but having everyone moving to Hilltop 's nt only thinkable but obvious. Kirkman you need to just stay focused on the story (ine and keen away from the hype. THE WALKING DEAD never disappoints but thinking that something truly “unthinkable” was going to happen was @ BIG let down!!! Best Steve Rothman Los Angeles, California ‘Steve, on the basis that you thought of those things, they are also not “unthinkable.” See how hard that is? I think losing Alexandria was pretty unthinkable. I think getting hit with a barrage of grenades was unthinkable. But I get what you're saying. We could have definitely pushed things more. Everyone could have died and the book could have followed Negan 2s he won that war and made the baok about him... but that’s not where I want to go. Stay tuned. ahead. there are PLENTY of unthinkable moments Greetings Me. Kirkman, I'm curious about the creative process involved in creating 50 many different characters in The Walking Dead. There are a lot of characters that are, more or less, in the background nd we may eventually hear thelr name mentioned by a main Character and sometimes we see these background characters {gain more development as the story moves forward. Do you Greate blos and backstories for all of your characters before you introduce therm? Far instance, did you create bios for 2 Bunch of Saviors characters and then think this character ‘At in really well in this part of the story? I think it be very interesting to learn a litte bit about how these characters are created and how and when you decide to Insert them into the story. I'm also curious about how you map out the story arcs? I've read somewhere that you have mapped out the story upwards of something near 200 or so issues. If 's0, do you use that map as a flexible layout and then change certain aspects of it when you realize that something just doesn’t work or if you come up with something you think may work better? It would be really cool to see updated survivors Guides with info for new and less common characters we don't Feally know anything about. [think lt would give readers @ deeper leok into who the people are that don't really get a lot of page time in the series, Thanks and keep up the good work, Greg Taylor Read all about Robert's writing process in THE WALKING DEAD: CUTTING ROOM FLOOR, coming, ‘Shut up, Sean. There's not 2 100% concrete set process, Greg. Any and all of what you proposed In your letter happens from time to time. I do have a rough outline tor the next 200 issues or so, but I also come up with things on the fly and push storylines back to accommodate... all that time, that’s how you get roughly 200 issues worth of story backlogged. As far as individual characters, there are a lot of notes and things listing different character traits, but for the most part that stuff just goes onto the page and is kept track of in my Scattered brain. It's ames! Dear Kirkman & Co, Twrote in a couple issues ago complaining about you wasting the tiger, throwing her away In a stupid short scene that really wasn't that cool. But after reading 121 I just want to say that while I'm stil alittle plssed about that I really, am glad you turned Ezekiel, the great and obnoxious king fof the kingdom, into a huge pussy. There are already a solid ‘amount of badass characters in the book, with Car! getting better as he goes, that introducing another few for All Out War seemed e bit ridiculous. But fortunately he's just a giant pussy with combat performance anxiety. And that makes me feel better about I Calling him a pussy is a little ridiculous. He, like most of the others involved in this war, aren't properly trained soldiers. He’s fought in several battles (not including answering the call to arms in #114), so he’s not a complete pussy...and then got his ass whupped to such a terrifying degree the last go-around that he didn’t want to get himself or any more men killed. Tf anything he’s kind of a front runner T guess, riding ick’s coat tails? But his story's not over yet, as you saw last issui stop call ‘and he's licking off shots this one, so ig him a pussy... you wimp. What Sean said. He's, y’know... a layered individual with many traits. He was even a little badass this Also, I love Charlie's artwork, but there Is no way a bunch of hand grenades would cause the kind of mass destruction to the town that’s depicted in 121. It looks like Dresden after WNIT, Just saying, Roberto You're wrong. Hi there Robert &. Co. Can you please make us a big favor and finally kil off that lame excuse of a man Negan. I can not stand this guy since you've first brought him in. Tan nat make it out, should he bea tough guy of some insecure moran, who swears at any Sentence he brings out of his fithy mouth just to gain soma respect out of lowlifes that view swearing as coal. should he be respected or feared just because he Is a pathetic Governor ripoff. I really do not dig any of this Negan hype at all. Thope that Rick or Cer will kill him of very soon and that Wwe can See some better new storyline soon cause all this war thing is taking way too long. Dean Can't please everybody... I swear he has almost ZERO in common with the Governor, Male... leader of # community... I really just don't get the comparison. ‘See you in two weeks when... yeah... we get more into that arrow thing that’s sticking out of Rick... “Sean Mackiewicz It’s going to be UNTHINKABLE! -Robert Kirkmanau. of THe DANGER! ALL oF THE KILLING! ALL oF THE SWEARING! LOOK, KIDS! IT’s LUCILLE!!! FULL COLOR! ORDER; NOW!} 4% AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY AT THEWALKINGDEAD. com: S> S® iilROBERT KIRKMAN + IMAGECOMICS.COMes eae RET LY NR NW